Eyes of the Fox
by Xandarius
Summary: AU. For reasons known only to the Hokage and a few others, Kakashi was given a child to raise on the night the Kyubi attacked. Now, twelve years later, Naruto is finishing up his time at the academy, and is ready to start his adventure as a ninja. Pairings are as follows: NaruxSaku, KakashixAnko, and ShikamaruxTemari, and JiraiyaxTsunade. First Naruto fic, please review.
1. Prolouge

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, suing me would be pointless**

**This is my first Naruto fic, so feel free to yell at me for any unexplained OOCness.**

normal

_thoughts_

**kyubi**

_**kyubi thoughts**_

* * *

Hiruzen, Kakashi, and Anko looked down at the child held in the third Hokage's arms.

"What are we going to do with him?" asked Anko, being uncharacteristically serious. "It would be dangerous for him to be on his own, especially since the Council decided to let everyone know about the Kyubi."

"I know." Hiruzen said. "But I cannot take him in, my position has already been weakened by the Orochimaru incident. Anything more, and my position may be given to someone else. Someone like Danzo, perhaps."

"I should take him in, but I'm not sure-" Kakashi started, and then gasped, looking at the child's eyes. Where they had been blue before, now they were red, with cat-like slits for pupils, and one small tail-like mark, circling them. Small fangs poked out of the infant's mouth. Looking up at the others, Kakashi said "That settles it. I have to raise him, if only to help him learn how to control this."

"Of course, but what is it?" Anko asked.

"It's something I've only heard of." Hirizen said. "It's known as the 'Kyugan.' It's something that only is inherited if the child's parent is the jinchuriki of the Kyubi, and the child is as well. Obviously, it's very rare, but once the bloodline is started, all the descendants will have the eyes as well." Horizon sounded worried. "It was only a legend before now."

"Well," Kakashi said. "It looks like the legend has become a reality."

* * *

"NARUTO, GET DOWN HERE. YOUR GRADUATION EXAM IS TODAY!" Kakashi yelled up the stairs. It had been 12 years since he had taken in the son of his teacher, and they had been anything but easy for the former ANBU member.

He had taught all that he could to the boy, at least while he was in the academy. He had had to teach him the shadow clone technique, because Naruto simply had too much chakra to effectively use a regular clone technique. He had also taught as much as he could about ocular jutsu, his own being secondhand. Naruto now had three of the tail-like marks unlocked, and had started growing claws when the Kyugan was activated.

As Kakashi was finishing spreading jam on his toast, Naruto came running down the stairs, grabbing Kakashi's toast. Scarfing it down, he yelled over his shoulder "SEE YA POPS!"

Kakashi shook his head, and called back "REMEMBER, IF YOU DO WELL, I'LL TAKE YOU TO ICHIRAKU'S!" Naruto flashed back a thumbs up sign, and disappeared. Kakashi sighed to himself, and then left to answer the summons from the Hokage.


	2. Chapter 1

**AN: So… this took a lot longer than I thought it would for me to write. Sorry about that. But seeing as I don't exactly have an update schedule, I'm not sure what people expected in the first place. In any case, on with the show!**

As he ran to the academy, Naruto thought over the time he spent with his Pops. It had been a few years since he'd figured out that he was adopted, and Kakashi confirmed the suspicions. It didn't really matter to Naruto, he still loved his Pops, it just made him wonder who his real parents were. Pops had told him that they had died when the Kyubi attacked, soon after he was born, and the Kyubi was sealed inside of him. Naruto actually didn't mind having the biju sealed inside him, Kurama could be very helpful, teaching him special jutsus that only he could use, and how to properly use the Kyugan.

Pops did make sure that he never revealed the fact that he had the Kyugan, because he knew that the villagers would assume that the Kyubi was taking over Naruto, and would try to kill him, which would end badly for all involved.

As he got to the academy, he saw his best friend, and eternal rival, Sasuke. He felt bad for Sauske, because although they had both lost their parents, at least Naruto had his Pops. Sasuke had no one, except for all his fan girls.

He was also the only person outside of Naruto's adoptive family, consisting of his Pops, Old Man Third, and Aunt Anko, who knew about the Kyugan. He had found out during one of their sparing matches. They had these regularly, to keep up their skills, and because it gave them a chance to talk alone, away from all the girls that hounded Sasuke, and the villagers who called Naruto a demon. Naruto knew why they called him that, but that didn't make it hurt any less. In fact, because he could talk to, and was kinda friends with Kurama, it hurt a little more, because he knew that Kurama didn't mean to cause all that destruction, it was just in his nature, not to mention, he was being controlled.

Naruto had accidentally activated the Kyugan in an attempt to get away from one of Sasuke's faster attacks. He succeeded, but by the time he figured out what he had done, Sasuke had already seen his eyes. Sasuke took it well, relatively. He did shout and rave for a while, demanding to know where he had gotten an ocular jutsu, what it did, and why Naruto wasn't part of a clan.

Naruto had answered as best he could, with what information Pops and Kurama had given him, and what Kurama deemed safe for the raven haired boy to know. A few days later, everything was back to normal between the two boys, except that Sasuke had to work a lot harder to beat Naruto when they spared.

As Naruto came closer, Sasuke gave him a small smile and wave. None of his fan girls understood why only Naruto, one of the most disliked people in the village, was the only person who could make Sasuke smile after the incident. Many had considered asking Naruto himself, but, remembering how the adults shunned the boy, and not wanting to be shunned themselves, they never did.

That's not to say that Naruto didn't have fans of his own, they were just more subtle than Sasuke's. The main three were Hinata, Ino, and Sakura. Ino and Sakura bickered almost constantly when it came to Naruto, from what his best trait was, to who his parents might be, to who would marry him when they grew up. Hinata stayed out of these fights, but she still tagged along with the other girls, hoping to catch a glimpse of where Naruto lived, and trained.

Naruto may not have been the smartest student at the academy, but he made up for it in sheer strength and the fact that he could be completely unpredictable. His specialties were anything that involved shadow clones, thrown weapons, brute strength or large numbers of clones. He had figured out that whatever his clones learned, he learned, but his Pops had warned him that using that skill for anything but simple recon could be a little much at this point; it would be hard to be a 12-year-old with the mind of someone much older, which is what would happen.

As it was, he tended to use them for physical training, doing chores, and running errands, while the original studied academics, learned new jutsus, and worked with the Kyugan. While his clones could use the ocular jutsu, they couldn't keep it up for long, and dispelled soon afterwards, so it wasn't useful, unless he was using them in a blitz. He tried this against Sasuke a few times, with promising results. Sasuke hated when he did it though, saying it looked like a horde of were-foxes coming to kill him, which only assured Naruto of its effectiveness.

When he reached the gate, he gave Sasuke a high-five, and together they started walking to their classroom, followed by Sakura, Ino, and Hinata, who were doing their best to look inconspicuous, knowing that hiding was useless, as either one of the boys would notice them, and ask what they were doing.

"So, Sasuke, are you looking forward to being a genin?"

"Dobe, you know that there's no guarantee that we'll pass the exam. And even if we do, our jonin instructor gives us a test of their own, and if we fail that, it's back to the academy with us."

"Yeah, but Teme, we know that we'll do fine in the academy test, and so long as our teams are good, we'll ace the second part too."

"I wish I had your enthusiasm." Sasuke said, shaking his head. "C'mon, Ikura-sensei is probably waiting for us."

As they walked into the classroom, they found that their teacher was, in fact, not there. Grinning, Naruto headed over to their other friends. As he got close, Shino and Choji turned to greet him, while Kiba continued to yell at a seemingly napping Shikamaru, who they could tell was awake because he kept muttering "Troublesome" under his breath.

"Hey Naruto, what's up?"

"Nothing much, Choji. What's Kiba yelling about now?"

"He feels that Shikamaru is not taking the exam today seriously, which could hurt the chances of us all graduating together." Shino replied stiffly, which was usual for him anyways.

"He'd better take it seriously, or else we'll just have to remind him that we know where he lives, and we know how his mother will react to the news of him failing." Naruto said with a grin. Shikamaru gave a "che," but they all knew that he would do his best to pass with the threat of his mother hanging over his head.

Just then, Ikura-sensei walked in, signaling the start of their final day as students.

"Are you sure about this sir?"

Hiruzen looked at Kakashi, and asked "Why? Do you think the boy will fail?"

"No, but generally we don't have parents lead their children's' squad for the safety of their squadmates. And who will teach Sasuke if I'm busy with Naruto?"

"That will be taken care of. Now, you might want to get going, grades and teams are about to be announced. You wouldn't want to be late to your own son's graduation, would you?"

"What, and lose my reputation?"


End file.
